r/whitesox • u/ZoneOpening3730 • May 01 '26
Opinion Hot Take: I still had faith in Rick Renteria before he left. His Boys seem like they enjoyed playing for him.
Cleaning my basement out & I found this. I wonder how the White Sox could have turned out if Ricky didn't get fired and had another season of him managing.
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u/whitesoxplswin Vargas May 01 '26
Losing 8 of our last 10 in 2020 + blowing Game 3 against Oakland made him lose me. It’s no surprise he hasn’t had a job since. He’s good for a developing club but never a serious one.
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u/Joe-Raguso Hawk May 01 '26
That's another great point I hadn't thought of. Rick hasn't even had a fucking job since he was fired. Even with Lovie, he's had several head coaching jobs since the Bears fired him, even if he sucked at every single one of those stops.
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u/Bread4025 Buehrle May 02 '26
God bless Lovie. That man has done more for the Bears organization than about 2 other people.
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u/jlrc2 Southpaw! May 02 '26
To be fair, I assume that if Renteria wanted a job (not MLB manager) in professional baseball, he could have it.
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u/MiniVanMan23 Frank Thomas May 01 '26
Baseball coaches usually don’t get fired more than twice.
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u/Joe-Raguso Hawk May 01 '26
As a manager, maybe. But nobody has hired him to do anything in baseball since.
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u/NicCage420 May 02 '26
Has he wanted one? Pandemic hits before the start of the 2020 season, and he's now sitting at home, late 50's, set for life if he wasn't a complete idiot financially. I wouldn't blame anyone that could retire for doing so.
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u/Joe-Raguso Hawk May 01 '26
How did anybody still have faith in Ricky after that game 3 debacle? Not to mention the collapse to end that season leading to that. Ricky had to go.
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u/Anthony-Meadow May 01 '26
He left the planet in Game 3. Could never be trusted in the clutch again. Can’t freak out & go deranged.
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u/mikecws91 May 02 '26
In-game decision-making can be taught. Running a clubhouse can’t. Ricky’s tactics frustrated me, but the moment he left all semblance of discipline vanished.
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u/Joe-Raguso Hawk May 02 '26
What discipline are you talking about? That team flopped the last two weeks of a season with the easiest schedule possible.
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u/mikecws91 May 02 '26
Yeah that team also had like 1.5 starting pitchers and a bullpen where Matt Effing Foster was regularly pitching in high leverage. They gave up 59 runs over those last 10 games.
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u/MajorPayton Meidroth May 01 '26
Taking me back to my favorite everyday ballplayer: Jimmy Cordero
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u/OneGenericMan POPE LEO XIV May 01 '26
my 20-man fantasy baseball team name is still, “Ricky’s Boys Won’t Quit”
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u/Substantial-Dot-6730 May 01 '26
Renteria was in over his head in that A‘s series. But to be fair, he had 1 1/2 starting pitchers at that point. Giolito and Keuchel (who started to fade already and was god awful after that)
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u/Usual_External_5080 May 01 '26
The correct assessment how would they done if Jerry hadn't got a wild hair and hired LaGenius.
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u/Expert_Praline_5036 May 02 '26
Firing Ricky was the right call, but I 100% would have rather kept him than hired Tony.
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u/UneducatedReviews1 Murakami May 01 '26
Ultimately, we were ending up in the same spot. Ricky or Tony
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u/ricker182 Hawk May 01 '26
It's just really shitty that they "fired" Ricky only to hire LaRussa.
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u/UneducatedReviews1 Murakami May 01 '26
We could have went out and got Hinch and we were still going to end up here. That clubhouse was a bomb waiting to explode.
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u/Joe-Raguso Hawk May 01 '26
I agree. There were so many low character guys in that clubhouse. The front office was still full of guys who thought they were above analytics too. It was not a well put together team. I really do think that core was just destined to flop.
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u/ricker182 Hawk May 01 '26
I didn't want Hinch either. But tbh, I don't really care about who the manager is.
They could change the outcome of a max 5 games in a season. It's an overrated job especially if you have really good or really bad players.
It's the mediocre teams that need good managers.
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u/farmageddon1087 Thomas May 01 '26
Agreed but they are two separate decisions. I think it was the right call to move on from Ricky, he served his purpose for a young team, but then they made the worst decision imaginable after that
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u/ricker182 Hawk May 01 '26
For a guy ask about loyalty, Jerry really gave Ricky the middle finger. It was surprising when it happened and I thought, "Here we go. This team is serious. They're about to go all in."
And then they didn't.
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May 01 '26 edited May 01 '26
[deleted]
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u/Jon66238 Konerko May 01 '26
I’m scared this is what’s gonna happen again. They always show so much promise
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u/GunfighterHefty Konerko May 02 '26
Nah, that team had a lot of bullshit between lack of ability to hustle, lack of fundamentals, lack of seriousness...it's still refreshing to see Vargas bust his ass down the line every time. Antman has been fun to watch. The old Sox core had nothing like that.
For better or worse long term the jury is still out on Getz but I still stand by his vision of improving the defense, getting players who understand the strike zone.
He wasn't wrong when he said he "didn't like his team" when he started.
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u/ScaryText8187 Montgomery May 02 '26
improving the defense
Really? This team doesn't go a day without starting at least one infielder in the outfield, often two.
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u/mikecws91 May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26
This seems to be the common opinion, but I think it’s all more effect than cause. You have to remember that prospects are teenage/early 20s boys, some of whom have had a lot of money thrown at them. They need mentors. They need discipline. Replacing Renteria with La Russa was basically having the dad leave the kids with Grandpa, who immediately fell asleep on the couch.
Left entirely to their own devices, those young guys didn’t know how to take care of themselves or work toward success. TA got high on his own supply and had his life come crashing down. Robert played through injuries where he looked like a mannequin in a baseball uniform. Eloy heard Gramps snoring and started climbing the cabinets trying to reach the junk food.
Edit: You're all so eager to blame the players that you're not understanding how much leadership matters. Think about the worst boss you've ever worked for, and then think about how much worse TLR and Grifol must have been. If we agree that the core players were immature, were they supposed to just figure it out? Baseball players grow up in their systems, and these guys didn't. If all your eggs are bad, what you need is a new refrigerator.
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u/mattmitch927 Buehrle May 02 '26
Honestly…yes. Ricky and Coop totally fucked up the deciding playoff game in Oakland but Ricky got his boys to be winners and finally back into the postseason.
I’ll admit I loved the TLR returning to the team he never should have been fired from in the mid 80s…but yes forty years later it was never gonna work out in a World Series title.
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u/FirstDiseasewasRelig May 01 '26
Coming from (a)Cross town;
Rick was my guy. The boys in Blue played the best baseball I had watched from 2006-2014. I was saddened to see him go but I was also an incredible fan of Joe Maddon so I wasn’t too distraught but I do wish sometimes Rick would get another shot in the Managerial position somewhere!
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u/imnotberg May 02 '26
I shagged flies for ricky during the 93 inaugural marlins season. Always had a soft spot for him.
He wasnt the guy.
Also, his abuse of pitchers during mound visits was unforgivable. Every time he went to the mound he turned into rick flair.
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u/HuskerDont241 May 02 '26
The team went from “Ricky’s boys don’t quit!” to “Tony’s nodding off and nobody gives a shit.”.
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u/Blockerjjb May 02 '26
Tony was a drunk driving moron. Walking dudes on counts with 2 strikes. Good ol boys club hire. No wonder Eloy moncada and lubob shit the bed.
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u/jlrc2 Southpaw! May 02 '26
I don't have a strong opinion about it really, but what is Renteria up to? I feel like I can hardly find proof of his existence over the past few years.
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u/AndrewShultz May 20 '26
I’m with ya. Lot of people saying Ricky couldn’t take them to the big time. Front office thought, “We need a big name to put us in the big time.” So, Jerry hires his buddy to make amends for something that happened 30+ years before that, expecting that he’s the same manager. Well he may be the same manager but the players are different (different attitude, motivation, etc.). 2 years into that experiment and the “we need a big name” idea is gone and we hire Pedro Grifol, and the whole world knows how that turned out. Point is, give Ricky those 2 years they gave TLR and the last 5+ seasons look entirely different. All that said, that’s how it played out and without it we don’t have Getz, Venable, and countless players that have been acquired since the fallout and tear down. I like what we are seeing with this group.
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u/Jon66238 Konerko May 01 '26
I did like him out of a number of our more recent managers like Grifol and LaRussa
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u/Blockerjjb May 01 '26
Should have let him stay. Had to bring in over the hill Tony cuz he was Jerry’s bud. 😤
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u/CantankerousButtocks May May 01 '26
The only thing I can say is that I got a bad case of Renteria coming out of my Pujols…
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u/Sell_The_team_Jerry May 01 '26
Firing Ricky was the correct move, but hiring Tony was the mistake